Palak dal
2015-02-08- Course: Sides
- Skill Level: Intermediate
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- Servings : 6
- Prep Time : 10m
- Cook Time : 20m
- Ready In : 30m
Dal is a great way to get protein into a vegetarian diet, but plain dal can get very boring. A good way to vary the dal is by adding different kinds of vegetables to dals or making a spicy sambhar. I remember my Mum reserving a bit of the vegetable that she was cooking today to be cooked along with the next day’s dal-say she was cooking aubergine today, then she would save a piece to go with tomorrow’s dal, just for a change of taste.
I am not so organised, absolutely not. On a good day, if I actually remembered to reserve a piece of vegetable in the fridge, I might forget it for the next two weeks and then have to bin it. So I just go on a day-by-day basis. I indulge my moods and my impulses. That’s how I cook.
What do you do?
Ingredients
- Toor dal / Yellow lentils- 1 cup
- Water- 2 1/2 cups to pressure cook
- Spinach- 1 cup
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- Turmeric powder/haldi- 1/4 tsp
- Coriander powder/dhania powder- ¼ tsp
- Garlic- 2 pods
- Hing (Asafoetida)- 1 pinch
- Red chilli powder- 1/ 2 tsp
- Garam masala powder- 1/4 tsp
- Lemon juice- 1 tsp or Tamarind pulp- 1/4 tsp
- 2 tbsp oil or ghee or butter
- 1 or 1.5 cups water to be added later or as required
- Salt
- Sugar/ Jaggery - 1 pinch

Method
Step 1
Rinse the dal in several changes of water until the water runs clean. Pressure cook with 2 1/2 cups water until soft.
Step 2
In a large wok, add oil/ ghee. When hot, add 2 smashed cloves of garlic. It will brown, turn it over. Add a pinch of asafoetida.
Step 3
Add in the chopped onions. Fry till translucent.
Step 4
Add the turmeric, chilli powder and salt. mix well.
Step 5
Add the chopped spinach. Fry well. The spinach will wilt quickly. Do remember that spinach has a lot of sodium, so go easy on the salt.
Step 6
Add in the cooked dal.
Step 7
Add some more water if the dal is too thick.
Step 8
Add in the garam masala and tamarind or lemon juice and sugar or jaggery. In most Indian meals, a inch of sugar or jaggery is added in to balance the flavours.
Step 9
Give it a good boil and simmer for 5-6 minutes.

Serve hot with rice, dal or parathas.
For more dal recipes, look up:
Teto Dal Sambhar Dal Fry- Punjabi style